Beast Wars Book One
by Omicron the IceQueen
Summary: In honor of BWintdotnet's classic insert stories. BWint forever! Meet Tallen. See Tallen meet a giant fireant. See Tallen run for her life with the neatfreak and over protective fireant as well as one loose tongue rat. Please watch out for some words
1. Not possible

**Book One**

Chapter One:

Not... possible...

Now, she had some of those day dreams where one isn't in their own world, but somewhere else... Alright, so maybe a few times more than a few, yet who hasn't?

When dreaming, you can have an adventure, maybe a fantasy life and love, or whatever else one could think of. In the end though, it was still___ just a dream,_ one that you could wake up from and go back to your real life. Maybe you even can even write down that dream in the form of a short story, or a longer novel.

Yet despite it all, it would always supposed to just a _dream_. Nothing _real_...

Blue eyes blinked open and stared at the trees in front of the owner, as the hazy image refocused the trees seemed to be bending down. The young woman stared long and hard at the unfamiliar and somewhat thin forest around her from this angle. Perhaps 'forest' wasn't the right term for it, more of a light wood, almost like a park really.

The sky above was a bright sapphire blue, completely untainted by the air born pollutants of the twenty first century. It wasn't cold out, nor hot but in the level between where you could wear a sweatshirt and be perfectly fine. The air tasted crisp and _new_, even more so compared to the large city the woman was used to living in. The woman had come to a bluff where the landscape proved to be no park. The trees gradually became thicker the farther the miles sprawled out. Here and there rock formations covered in yellowed grass jutted up out of the cover of leaf filled branches. Though most of that wasn't seen by the human right now.

"What... the hell?" Tallen asked, lifting a hand to her head, squinting at the lighted sky above. Slowly, carefully she rolled over onto her right side, running into her backpack and automatically curled around it. Her head was throbbing and she felt like she was going to throw up.

Was she sick?

No, not sick-sick. The woman knew all too well that 'backed up' feeling in the gut when one had the flu. This was like the worst case of motion sickness, she knew the ground was sold under her, but the world still seemed like it was tilting back and forth. Like the rocking of a dive boat.

With one hand grasping her pack, the other curled into the grass in a subconscious effort to keep herself grounded. Waiting for the feeling to pass, and slipped into a healing sleep. It took a few hours for her body to adjust back to normal and when it did, waking up the second time later that day was easier. Being able to sit up was a big plus too.

Tallen worked her jaw and flexed inside to pop her ears. That was better.

If she was standing she wound be about five foot five, had an average build with some fluff, strawberry blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail and treaded through the back of a red and black baseball cap that had an Autobot insignia on the front. Faded green work paints had a verity of goodies in their many pockets and like the thick boots, they had some sawdust trapped in rolled up ends. She had on a gray sweatshirt that had been passed down from an older sibling years ago and had also once been white. A black cord ran from two headphones clipped to the front of the over shirt and ran down in the inside to a MP3 player hidden in a back pocket.

Her name was Tallen as said before and she was twenty five years old, almost twenty six in another few months. She worked two jobs (sort of), one at her family-owned Scuba diving shop and whatever odd thing she could pick up. Tallen primarily lived with her step father, several snakes and one iguana in a two bedroom apartment. Although she wasn't in collage at the time she was planning on going back within a few years.

At the moment, she was completely, and utterly lost as she looked around.

Not just in the physical sense of not knowing where you were but also confused. It was a sinking feeling you get in your heart, where your gut twists and clenches down before the stomach tries to drop a foot into the ground. It's obviously not the best of feelings because you just _know_ that you are so very much _screwed_, and not in the good way. Yet at the same time... there wasn't a damn thing you can do other than stare at your situation for a few minutes in a weird, twisted sense of horrified wonder.

Tallen let go her backpack, careful not to harm the cargo inside. She looked around again, twisting in place and for once in a long, long time she felt truly helpless in the current of fate.

She closed her eyes and sank down until she was sitting cross-legged beside her pack. Tallen opened her eyes, gazing over the bluff to the sweeping woods beyond and forced almost all thoughts out of her mind. First things first: How did she get here?

Frowning, Tallen tried to remember her last memory before she had woken up here on the ground. Tallen came up with the clearest memory that she knew was from a week ago, when she had been working as a deck-hand on a charted boat. She remembered being upside down passing tools to her step father and another man- the skipper!- that were in a tight spot in the engine compartment of said dive bout.

Slowly, as she dropped her chin in the palm of one hand and picked at the grass under her with the other, Tallen worked through the rest of her scattered and fragmented bits of memories of the next few days. She was doing go up until Saturday night and nothing of Sunday.

Tallen knew that she had planned something with her best friend for Sunday night... She just couldn't grab onto what they had planned or did. Though Tallen and her friend tended to get lost and sometimes go off and do something else then what they planned at first, one of them always left a message with one set of parents or the other.

Yes, they were both over nineteen but they live in a big city. Vancouver was a good city and all, but it was common sense: Night time, two young women that are still new to clubbing (if you can call it that), it can spell trouble if you're not careful. Thus they were smart and give those the two trusted a heads up of where they planned to go and if there's any changes in those plans.

However, since Tallen was the one that normally drove, unless they took the Sky-Train, she didn't drink except at home, and that was a rum and coke. More often than not, Tallen would get sugar buzzed on Vanilla Cola or Dr. Pepper. Or rather just get hyper but it's kind of the same when they were out dancing. Either way the two still end up flopped over and sleeping through the next day just the same. The only time alcohol was really involved was when the two were safe at home.

The question now was: how did Tallen get from dancing with her best friend (or was she at work), to being out in the middle of some forest that she didn't know? This was far from the temperate rain forest climate Tallen knew and loved in her Northwest home. There were no ferns or cedar trees, no damp moss or two foot deep piles of pine needles...There was grass instead of clusters of sword fern and nettles covering the ground.

Tallen loved the woods as much as the next person, but she did not know this one. The woman shivered, she didn't like it. Not in the least. That sinking feeling came back and Tallen shivered again but it had nothing to do with the air temperature.

"Now what?" Tallen wondered aloud as she once again looked around for a clue as to where she was or what happened. As before like the last fifteen times there was no hint or clue.

Well, she couldn't just sit on the ground all day and have a fool's hope of being found before nightfall.

"Get your butt up," Tallen said as she stood and walked over to one of the nearer rocks to climb and scanned what she could see of the sloping land below. This time taking her time and studying one section of the odd forest at a time before moving her gaze and repeating the process. "There we go." She smiled as she saw a break in the tree line, not a clearing but a steady line that meandered through the woods.

Even if it wasn't a full of water there was a good chance that it was still a steam bed. It was as good as anything to go on and hopefully she could fallow it down stream to... well, some kind of civilization. Wither it be a village or town.

Now... how to get over there?

"Wait." Tallen said to herself, or if anyone asked why she was talking aloud to herself, Tallen would she was talking to her iguana despite be nowhere near the creature (it was just purely habit). The woman turned and reaching into her right thigh pocket pulled out a dive knife and stepped back to trees behind her. She stared at the knife for a moment, getting a flash of... something before carved her initials and an emblem into the thin bark on both sides of the tree. Grabbing up her back pack again she started back to the spot where she had woken up, marking the trees and keeping the initials in sight of each other. She had a feeling that she might have to find the place again, just in case. In honesty she wasn't sure why, but thought that maybe it was for any search and rescue people could fallow her path.

It took some time, but eventually Tallen found her way safely down the bluff, she still marked some trees so she didn't get turned around. The woman didn't rush either, knowing that if she did then she'd get lost even more. After the half an hour climb down and nearly an hour's walk later the sounds of running water was welcome indeed. Pulling shoes and socks off and rolling up her pants the woman put her feet in the cold water, wincing slightly but enjoying the break.

A not so distant explosion ripped through the relative quiet of the afternoon air and made the woman yelp and nearly fall into the stream while birds launched themselves up into the air.

"What the hell?!" Tallen scrambled up onto her feet, bouncing from one foot to the other to get her shoes and socks back on. Leaping the gap from her wide rock to the bank where her pack was. Grabbing it she hesitated before fallowing in the general direction of the explosion, a combination of mix feelings driving her. From her job in the dive store she was used to running to blown o-ring 'booms', but this had been bigger.

Someone could be hurt, and though not an expert Tallen did know some first aid, had to in order to be a dive master. Depending on the situation she could find out what way to go for more help.

On the way she hacked a rough 'X' into a few trees with the pocket knife, and as her dive knife bit into the next tree there was another and another, smaller, detonation. This time Tallen flinched, reflexively hunching into herself and looked around with wide eyes.

Was that propane tanks or something?

True the sounds helped guide the young woman but as Tallen got closer she could define gun shots and a few varied yells. She stopped far enough away that Tallen could sling her bag off and drop down before could see or be seen by whoever was fighting, though she could hear almost everything. Including alien words not foreign in the sense of like Spanish or Russian but literally _alien_ in the multi layered tones.

Suddenly, Tallen didn't like the idea of getting any closer.


	2. Oh crap!

**Book One**

Chapter Two:

Oh crap!

Okay, the Beast Wars.

It was completely illogical, impossible... and terrifyingly _real_.

"Running, running, _running_!" Tallen chanted under her breath as she scramble as fast and as quietly as she could with her heavy back pack. She spared a look down and her eyes widened. The woman pushed off harder on her left foot in a desperate attempt to avoid stepping on and/or tripping over a remarkably large ant mound.

"Eeeeeee! No, no, no!" Tallen stumbled and franticly shook one leg and than the other. She grabbed the fabric and brushed it off, half hitting the fabric as she put space between her and the now aggravated fire ant nest. The woman ran into something and quickly hoped up onto it so she could yank her shoes off than pants off before shaking them inside out, flinging off a few more ants before they knew what was happening. She also pulled off her socks, checking them over just to be sure.

"That was close." Tallen sighed as she pulled her foot ware back on again. "OW!" she smacked her calf over her Decepticon tattoo, squishing and flinging off the fire ant that bit her, "Bloody hell! Owow-ow!"

The something she was setting on suddenly moved under, Tallen and that feeling of impending doom from before slammed back into her gut. Tallen looked down between her legs at the smooth, metallic edge of a pod.

Pod?

Oh, right this was supposedly the Beast Wars... It was a stasis pod! It had to be there was nothing else that she could think it was... It was a stasis pod that was opening!

"Oh _crap!_" Tallen yelped as she jumped off, well, it was more like shoved off really as the pod's lid opened up underneath, her weight not seeming to hinder it. The woman stumbled and caught herself. She paused, blinked and froze at the unnatural shriek behind her as the pod opened and the occupant started crawling out.

Beast Wars, plus a pod, plus fire ant nest: it all equaled one red colored and flame throwing shock trooper.

_Think fast girl_, Tallen thought to herself as she slowly lifted her black sunglasses off from where they were folded, hanging on the front of her shirt and slipped them on. She turned around to meet a giant 'face' of an ant. The woman smirked, shoving all other emissions and feelings down to the deepest part of her mind so she was only projecting calm confidence. Hopefully none of the fear she had felt showed up physically, ants were adept at smells weren't they?

"Welcome to the world Inferno." Tallen said, keeping her head tilted just so, she was hoping that with her style of shades it'd help the fire ant mech (was Inferno a Predacon?) relate better to her. "I am the Ice Queen, and we have to go."

Timing was when another explosion sounded, making the beast mode shock trooper turn around, startled.

"Inferno," Tallen hissed as the ant turned back to her she pointed at the battle that sounded like it was getting closer, "The enemy of the colony, including spiders are coming!"

"Spiders!" Inferno rocked back and snapped his mandibles, "They dare invade the colony?! Inferno _Terrorize!_" The reformed Maximal to Predacon was…he lived up to his function of 'shock trooper' just from looks. Armored thickly all the way through the body as well as the impressive, twin flame throwers…he practically radiated that fact that he was a _soldier_. Not to mention that Tallen only came up to just above his knee...she wished she knew how big he really was to start with, his beast mode was misleading…as was the CGI cartoon.

"They did." Tallen said feeling like she was risking everything, "The colony is moving, _now._"

"The colony?" Inferno turned in confusion to look at his stasis pod, "But the colony-"

"Inferno," Tallen said gently, the new tone drawing the ant's attention again, "That's just a pod, not the true colony. The Colony is where the Queen is…and I'm leaving. As the last soldier I would think that you would fallow."

"I will," Inferno came back to where the woman was and knelt down, putting his flamethrower away so he could lower himself at the same level as the human. Hands on the ground on either side of the human. "I will protect my colony and my queen."

Tallen quirked an eyebrow up over her sunglasses. "Can you pick your pod up? ...No! Not in robot form! Go to beast mode!"

Rattrap didn't just curse, oh no. He swore deeply in such a way that he hadn't done in a long time. Not since he had been in the energon mines vorn ago. The shortest of the Maximals folded into himself as he transformed in to beast mode and limped away from the battle still going on behind him. The yells Tigertron and Cheetor mixing with the two spider-mechs' shrieks.

He hated this, running away, but he also knew that he was more of a liability than a helping hand with _those_ two Predacons around. Rattrap still hated it.

The giant gray rat limped into the underbrush, favoring both his left forepaw and the right hind leg. At least a foot of his tail was missing as well, courtesy Megatron himself. Rattrap was sure that over sized lizard had enjoyed taking it a little too much, and was planning on leaving a little explosive present in the

Clicking.

Rattrap froze at the sound and slowly lowered himself a few inches. He had to trust his beast mode as well his coloration to help him blend in.

The sight that greeted him when Rattrap warily peered out of his hiding spot wasn't remotely close to anything he'd expected to see. The Maximal stared for a long minute, watching as the odd group of two plus a stasis pod hurried past. Rattrap blinked. Once, twice, three times before finally frowning. Did he just see what he thought he saw? Or should he be asking why seeing the gigantic red ant carrying its stasis pod wasn't as strange as the being leading said ant?

"No way..." Rattrap muttered softly, waiting a few pulses of his spark before he sniffed the air, logging in the scents of the two new players on top of checking if any of the Predacons were directly nearby. The smallest of the transformers on the planted hesitated as a moment presented it's self. Rattrap had the choice of scuttling to his left, skirting the battle that was still going on behind him and start heading back to the down exploratory ship that housed the blessed CR chambers.

Or he could turn his nose to the right, hope the Predacons don't step on him as he tracked the possible new mech...

Rattrap sighed, "Kid, ya better be happy dat ya remind mah of Carter..." The grey rat muttered under his breath as he turned right and worked his beast mode self so he could fallow beside the scent trail, hidden in the underbrush.

If he had to admit one thing, was that these people could _move_ without really running. Rattrap cursed again as he realized he couldn't keep up with the pace. When it had been almost a full mega-cycle since the last time he caught a glimpse of red in the forest, he stopped. Rattrap looked and sniffed around automatically before edging out of the relative protection of a cluster of ferns to go to the edge of a stream not far away. The Maximal's large ears flicked and rotated around for any warning sounds as he drank some of the cold water to cool hot internal systems.

"Dis' is gonna take a while." Rattrap sighed as he dared to take the risk of activating some of his systems and scan the area around him. He got the barest of blips, almost out of his range. "Got ya suger." The Maximal smiled, even in beast mode as he limped off to the north. He ducked back down into cover away from the stream and shut down all systems he could to, as the saying goes: stay under the radar.

Rattrap spent much longer than he would have wanted fallowing the pair, on a good day or bad day. Like now. It was most definitely the latter of those as the Maximal let out a sigh and paused for yet another break.

His internal repair was sending so many messages for him to stop and enter a light recharge at the very least and it do some real work on him that it was giving Rattrap a ache in his processor. And could he shut the messages off? No, he couldn't because he got hit _just right_ by the slagging purple, over grown excuse of a Predacon slag heap...

Rattrap jerked up onto all fours as he looked at the sky through a small gap in the branches above. Black eyes narrowed. It was most decently dark than it had been last time he glanced up. Rattrap looked to his side out of reaction as he checked in internal chronometer.

This time Rattrap cursed out load and just as strong as when he was back in the mines, he cursed his own mechanical body for betraying him. He did go into a light recharged after all.

Shaking his head to clear it of any left over static, Rattrap marched forward with a stubborn, almost single minded purpose. It was somehow personal now to track down the new transformer... and the human Rattrap was positive he'd seen.


	3. Something here

**Book One**

Chapter Thee:

Something is here

The night was warm though still cool enough that Rattrap was surprised to see one of his targets, the one that he thought was more important. Though, not to pull any importance away from the new Maximal... or possible reprogrammed Predacon.

Either way, Rattrap wondered why the new transformer had gone with (or was it taking?) the human he'd seen.

The human he was looking at right now.

"Maximize." Rattrap whispered, "Stealth mode." He added just before transforming so that a low powered field surrounded his shell for a few moments. That field reduced the sounds Rattrap's body made in its transformation.

With a flick of his wrist and a quick dip into subspace, Rattrap tightened his right hand around his trusted, and well cared for semi-automatic energy pistol. The Maximal put his shoulder up against a tree trunk and swept his reactivated scanners over the aria, looking for the missing ant-transformer.

The night was almost a little too quite. There was still some night going insects firing off various buzzes, clicks, chirps, a whistle and here and there flashes of lights from some bugs. But there was no sign of any of the nocturnal, forest going birds or mammals, small or large.

Very few beams of the moonlight above broke the maze of branches. Yet Rattrap could still see, thanks to the wonderful thing known as inferred vision. The Maximal could see every rock, pebble, twig, leaf and tree.

There were also no signs of the giant fire ant Rattrap had seen a few times, nor of its robotic form. And that made him uneasy. Rattrap was a little bit worried, but not for himself. He had too many stellar-cycles of wide spread experience to be overly concerned with the safety of his person. Despite Rattraps numerous and sometimes very vocal protests to the contrary. Rattrap would admit, and only to himself, that he like to complain more often than not.

Yet, all things considering when it came down to it, Rattrap was one of the best mechs to have on your side. Right now though, Rattrap was far more concerned for the still human body that was half hidden between the large roots of a tree.

The small Maximal was probably the only transformer on this planet that had not only met a human; but Rattrap was one of the few that had (discreetly) ignored the Maximal Counsel of Elders' 'law' of not interfering with any human worlds or space.

Long ago, Rattrap had learned that the Elders were wrong about the humans. He liked the humans. They knew how to have fun and how to work. He had spent stellar-cycles on human colonies, even half of one on the once shared colony of Omicron before it dropped off the radar of Maximal scanners. Though he had never gone to the human home world, having never been that interested and most humans kept it hidden.

Slowly, Rattrap pushed off the tree he was using as cover and moved over to where the human was. He activated all scanners on top of visually scanning the aria. Rattrap glanced down, looking at the human, a female woman he noted. Not too young, but old enough to be on her own in human terms. How she ended up _here_, on this planet, he couldn't guess.

"Hey kid," Rattrap said softly, switching to the stranded human language he knew as he shifted his pistol to his left hand, the Maximal knelt. He reached out and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder and shook it, though carefully, mindful of his own metallic body.

A few things happened at once than, and none of them pleasant really.

The human woman jerked awake with a confused sound and wide blue eyes starting up into Rattrap's own red optics. Apparently the sight of him was so unexpected to the already jumpy woman that, in retrospect it wasn't that surprising that she let out a half yip, half yelp and through herself away from the bright red-glowing eyes in the dark.

Her panicked yell had also triggered the reaction of the previously missing fire ant. With and unnatural shriek that was a combination of something organic and robotic, the giant any busted out of the ground, pausing only long enough to spot the intruder (namely Rattrap) and lunged.

Rattrap snapped his pistol up and got one three-round shot off as he stumbled back. "Eeeeaaaaaaaah!" The Maximal screamed, the first time in a while as the ant's powerful mandibles clamped down around his middle and shook almost viciously. Hard enough that Rattrap lost his grip on his weapon, watching it slide over the back of the ant and drop into the whole he'd made in his appearance.

"-Vare avvack vhe vween!" the new transformer was saying, voice muffled by the smaller Maximal it held.

"Inferno!"

"Vou vill not harm her-"

"INFERNO!" The human screamed herself this time and when the ant paused for a second she darted closer and grabbed on if his antennae at the base and bent backwards an inch.

"AH!" the giant ant, Inferno immediately let go of Rattrap, backing up and away in an attempt to lessen the new and far more pressing pain on his head. "My Queen…please, please Royalty…!"

Rattrap couldn't move for a few minutes, warning signs flashed and flooded his HUD, nearly blocking out his vision as his body told him everything that was crushed, bend and damaged. The Maximal suck in air in rapid gasps to cool his overheated shell. Rattrap was on his knees, propped up partly by one hand and his left forearm on the ground, his head hanging down.

"-I mean it! Don't make me hurt you Inferno!"

"I was only trying to protect you my Queen…"

"I understand that, but I told you before not to randomly attack things, and people!"

"He attacked you!"

"He startled me! That's different!"

Rattrap shook his head as his audios flickered on and off again. Squinting he slowly focus on one sense at a time, blocking one warning massage after another until he could hear and see again properly. The silence that greeted him wasn't really comforting and he looked up, spotting in the corner of his HUD that time had passed again.

This _really wasn't_ his day...at all.

A soft (to him) and very organic hand grasped his shoulder and Rattrap looked up, hearing the sound of a transformation as well. Rattrap had forgotten how interesting human eyes could be. As well as how expressive they could be.

Worry...

"Hey don't-" The voice trailed off into darkness as Rattrap's field of vision tilted sideways and dimmed on both the human's face as well as that of the new mech who stepped forward.

Stasis lock claimed the Maximal.


	4. Terrorize

**Book One**

Chapter Four:

Terrorize

Muted voices greeted Rattrap when he came out of stasis. Far sooner than he'd thought he would have after a glance inward to see how much time had passed. The maximal was aware of being inside something, it too small for a repair chamber but still too big. It hit him then as he felt around and realized he was inside a stasis pod, sheltered from the energon radiation and the still functioning pod itself had done most of his repairs as well as giving him enough energy so his shell's internal repairs could do the rest.

It wasn't the fastest way to do things but still effective.

The voices outside of the pod were still talking, it was hopeless however to try and pick out the words, the pod was too thick. It was surprising that Rattrap could even hear voices at all.

The pod too was _big_, even bigger than the ones he was use to coming online in. One of the draw backs of being so small, the bigger-than-normal pods had a lot of room. Or at least, to some it was a problem, Rattrap had learned a long time ago how to take advantage of everything he could. He didn't get as old as he was now by not doing so.

Rattrap shifted and felt around, looking for the latch to open the stasis pod from the in side, it should be in the middle of the lid so he had to scoot down. His foot brushed the top of something soft making him freeze. There was nothing soft in the stasis pods, at lest if you didn't count the semi-liquid state the protoforms or bots were in.

The next few cycles had Rattrap trying to bend and flex to reverse his position and see what was in here with him. He moved slowly, so to hear the voices and to keep the owners of said voices from hearing him. The Maximal ended up curling up in the 'head' of the pod, whoever was in here last had broad shoulders even as a protoform. It made it easier to slowly shoot around and ease himself back to the 'foot' of the pod.

The soft thing felt like a bag. Rattrap, laying down on his front, felt around and found straps. An image, a memory of a human way back when, with a pack on his back held by straps over and under his shoulders. It was a backpack he realized; a pretty self-explanatory name really. So now the question remained, why was there a human made bag in a Cybertronian stasis pod with him?

There was dim, almost nonexistent yellow-orange light coming semi transparent viewing window above Rattrap's back. He looked up at the same time something, or rather someone on the outside rapped on the pod. Rattrap forgot about his optics as he saw a blurry, darker shape against the subtler darkness above.

The shape must have seen his glowing red gaze because it vanished.

Then the sound of the locks holding the lid of the pod close disengaged before the lid was lifted up. Wide, silver optics with hints of red peered in, the sear bulk and size of the mech suggested this was who had been in the pod before Rattrap. The mech was primarily red with undertones of silver and grey.

"He is functioning Royalty." The new bot said in growling voice that oddly had hints of a... no, Rattrap wasn't hearing things. It was almost but not quite feminine under the grating quality.

A human head peeked over the lip of the pod, under the new bot's other arm. Blue/green eyes met red optics. "Hey you are! Are you okay?" The human female asked, most dependently a female, in sound and looks.

"Ehh..." Rattrap hesitated before saying slowly, to make sure he was getting the words right as part of his mind placed the human dialect. Still close enough to the standard he knew, more or an off accent than anything, "Yeah... seen better days."

"You and me both," the human said ruefully, glancing up at the far bigger red mech standing other them both. "I'm sorry about the other night. You, well, startled us."

"Startled." Rattrap repeated, staring in disbelief, "You call nearly crushin' me in half bein' 'startled'?"

The human didn't hesitate to replay, "Yep." She pointed up at the quite red mech who was looking around, watchful and on guard. "As for the crushing thing…that was from Inferno's beast mode. Ants are really damn strong you know."

"Royalty," Inferno said, looking down. "We must keep moving, those murders will be following my signal."

The human female looked up and then back to Rattrap, stepping back, "Well, ya going to sleep some more or get out? Better hurry up though."

"Why?" The maximal asked but knew even as the girl pointed to a cluster of semi clear Energon crystals. Inferno was stepping back and transforming, folding into himself and reforming into a crimson fire ant, those powerful mandibles snapped at the air in reflex.

Rattrap gripped the edge of the pod and swung himself up and out, landing beside the human who was taking a few polite steps back to give him room. With no one in the pod anymore, the computer closed the lid and shut itself down for the most part. The mech turned to face the human after a quick glance around the spot they were at, not a clearing but not in any jungle. Some trees and high ferns mostly.

For the first time in a long while, Rattrap found himself looking slightly down at someone else. No more then a hand span or so yes, but the feeling was still nice to know he was no longer the shortest on the planet. The human was about average height, blondish hair pulled back and mostly hidden under a hat, green pains, boots...

Rattrap did a double take on the hat, staring at it.

The human frowned up at him, blinked and her eyes widen slightly, "Was a volunteer." She said in an explanation for the Autobot emblem on the hat.

"Really?" the Maximal arched an optic ridge as he tilted his head, glanced at Inferno when the ant came closer to inspect the stasis pod.

"Yep."

"What did you do?"

"Most worked with kids," The human shrugged, it wasn't overly important to her. She turned partly at a sound that drew the attention of all three. For a tense moment they waited, the human stepping back, Inferno half climbed over the pod to see better and Rattrap's other pistol flicked into view from subspace as he stepped reflexively in front of the young woman.

Rattrap took a half step back so he knew where the human was, he could feel her against his back before she ducked under the stasis pod. "Good girl." The Maximal muttered, keeping his scanners up as well as keeping an internal eye on the Energon build up.

After a minute when nothing leapt out at them and starting shooting, biting and/or doing anything else violent to their persons, the three relaxed.

"Come on," Rattrap said turned and reaching under the pod to grip the human's arm and pull her back out, "We need to get back to da' ship."

"What?" She stumbled and hung onto Rattrap for a moment until she had her balance back.

"Da' _Axilon_." Rattrap explained, "It's da' ship he an' I came here on... well, crashed here on this planet." He pointed at the large ant that was watching him intently until he slipped his pistol back into subspace. "It'll be safer then here. Name's Rattrap by the way," The Maximal let go and offered his hand this time.

The human hesitated, probably surprised that he knew the greeting, before grasping the offered hand. "I'm Omicron." She said and nodded up at the giant red any, "That's Inferno." Then she added before Rattrap could spend more then a few confused moments over the woman name, "She's a she by the way, not a he."

"She?" Rattrap asked skeptically as he eyed the large ant fussed over both the pod and then _him_. The last part was a little freaky, if mostly harmless.

"Yes she. I was going by beast mode at first since ninety nine percent of ants in a colony are female. But we talked about it when you were napping in the pod." The human flicked her fingers at the stasis pod, "Inferno has decided to be referred to as a 'she' because she is _obviously_ a solder and _not_ a useless breading drone. The fact she doesn't have wings _screams_ that last part as well. And that she is a she, just not feminine."

"...okay." Rattrap felt the first twinges of Energon build up and stepped back, folding into his beast mode. He tilted his head to look up before sitting up on his hunches to be at a closer level with this 'Omicron.' "You know, you're really slagging lucky kid. I don't know where h…she, got the translation program to-" he stopped.

Omicron wasn't looking at him, something had grabbed her attention to the side and now she was practically taut she was so tense. Rattrap turned at the same time Inferno touched his..._her_ antennae on the human's shoulders. The beast mode ant could smell and taste the fear, but knew it wasn't directed at the Maximal.

"Well, well," a dark voice almost purred, "This day maybe worth all this effort."

Mandibles snapped together as Inferno swung her large head around to look at the new speaker. Not a moment later she was even tenser then her human queen. "Spider!"

"Tarantulas!" There was barely a span of a blink before rattrap hand his semi-automatic pistols in hands, the whine of them filling charging filling the air in counter point to their voices.

"...Holy _shit!_"

That last one was Omicron as she finally snapped out of her shook at seeing a _giant_ _spider_ that was bigger then her. The young woman back-peddled as her arachnophobia surged up to a level she never knew was possible. Omicron inadvertently backed up into open mandibles and before she or the other two knew what was happening, Inferno had picked the human up and put her down under the large stasis pod before swinging back around to face the new comer.

"Inferno _Terrorize!_" The ant form split apart and reformed into the massive shock trooper, "You dare come here spider?!" She demanded stepping over a gaping Rattrap and planting herself in front of him and Omicron and leveling one of her almost over sized weapons on the real Predacon.

Tarantulas snapped something. Something harsh sounding and lased with clicks and twisted warbles, making it totally alien to Omicron. She scooted backwards as fast as she could to the other side of the pod. At the same time Rattrap almost barked back in that same alien language, jerking his head up at Inferno. The shock trooper looked mildly confused, but seemed to default on her beast mode as well as the 'side' of the one defending her, and more impotently helping to defend her queen (or was it their queen?).

Using Inferno as a shield, he- _she_ was big enough to be one, not to mention seeming to be instinctively very angry at the Predacon spider. It let Rattrap duck down and reach under the stasis pod to grab the human, getting a hold of an arm he pulled the woman out from under what he knew was a dubious shelter at best. Ignoring her yelp as he lifted her up with one arm, the rat mech reopened the pod and dumped Omicron in.

"Stay in kid!" Rattrap ordered slammed the lid down.

"Like I hav-" Omicron's words were cut off with a thud of metal hitting the seal.

Rattrap slapped his hand on the control panel, triple encoding his, well, personal code. At the same time transmitting a data burst of instructions for the pod to circulate oxygen rich air and not to attempt to 'repair' the new occupant. With his free hand he was covering Inferno be firing (somewhat blindly) at Tarantulas.

In hindsight, he should have been on the lookout for the _other_ spider mecha.

Rattrap staggered as something impacted on his back, for a nano klick nothing happen. Then he felt in an odd detected way his body spasm, jerking gracelessly and unable to cry out at the pain from the cyber-venom arrow. The Maximal hit the ground on his knees before pitching forward face first in the earth. The position was somewhat uncomfortable even without the cyber-venom working through his motor systems and clawing at joints to set the sensor net on fire whenever they moved.

It was nasty feedback loop meant to drive a mech into stasis lock. Every now and then when Tarantulas was feeling more psychopathic and sadistic then normally he'd stop whatever poor mech he had from going into stasis. The results weren't so pretty, as Rattrap knew from personal history in the Predacon ship.

Still suffering from the spasms, Rattrap wasn't in stasis yet. Either this was a venom that just effected the motor systems, or the 'arrow' hadn't hit him dead-on. Thus not injecting a full dose of the veil stuff.

He just managed not to give a grunt as Blackarachnia stepped on his back in raw spite as she re-armed her crossbow like blaster, sneaking up on the distracted shock trooper. Normally, Blackarachnia had learn long ago that doing that kind of insult to Rattrap was a bad idea. She had been flipped unextectedy by her legs being knocked out from under her her, and a piston to the head by the rat playing possum. This time she was evidently confident with her back shot and venom that the past wouldn't repeat itself this time.

_Oh... no ya don't..._ Rattrap shakily grabbed his energy pistol. He was far from quiet, but Blackarachnia didn't seem to think much of it as her attention was on the screaming trooper's back. She would later though, after she came out of stasis lock herself from such a lucky shot to the head, that Rattrap was sure it was a gift from Primus himself.

"Rattrap!" a welcoming, familiar voice called from above.

Rattrap didn't look up, but herd two different sets of jets. "H-help-p h-er!" he yelled as he prayed to Primus to keep up his luck as he fired between Inferno's legs at the twisted mech known as Tarantulas.

Energy blasts and arrows rained down from above on the true Predacon. Between the efforts of Optimus Primal, Airazor and Inferno, Rattrap watched as the three drove off Tarantulas. Who, almost as an afterthought, stopped just long enough to fling out a web line to grand and then dragged Blackarachnia none to gently after him. That left the Maximals with a very large, very well armed and rather upset shook trooper to deal with.

"This is gonna...to be fun..." Rattrap muttered as he face planted and jerked in another spasm, aware he was speaking human slandered. Just before his slipped into stasis at last, he heard a thumb as Inferno finally dropped to one knee and started prying off arrows from the purple mecha, as she just now started to feel the effects of the cyber venom herself.


	5. Pop Up

**Beast Wars**

Chapter Four:

Pop up

Using Inferno as a shield, she was big enough and very angry at the Predacon spider, Rattrap grabbed the human and pulled her out from under the stasis pod. Ignoring her yelp as he lifted her up with one arm, the rat reopened the pod and dumped Omicron in. "Stay in kid!" Rattrap slammed the lid down.

"Like I hav-" Omicron's words were cut off with a thud of metal hitting the seal.

Rattrap slapped his hand on the control panel, triple encoding his, well, code. At the same time transmitting a data burst of instructions for the pod to circulate oxygen rich air and not to attempt to 'repair' the new occupant. With his free hand he was covering Inferno, firing at Tarantulas.

In hindsight, he should have been on the look out for the _other_ spider.

Rattrap staggered, feeling his body spasm, jerking and unable to cry out at the pain from the cyber-venom arrow. The Maximal hit the ground on his knees before pitching forward face first in the earth. It was somewhat uncomfortable even without the cyber venom working through his motor systems.

Still suffering from the spasms Rattrap wasn't in stasis. Either this was a venom that just effected the motor systems, or the 'arrow' hadn't hit him dead-on. Thus not injecting a full douse... He just managed not to give a grunt as Blackarachnia stepped on his back in raw spite as she re-armed her crossbow like blaster, sneaking up on the distracted shock trooper. Normally Blackarachnia had learn long ago that doing that kind of insult to Rattrap was a bad idea, she'd been flipped with legs knocked out of her and a piston to the head by the rat playing possum. This time she was evidently confident with her backshot that the past wouldn't repeat itself this time.

_Oh...no ya don't..._ Rattrap shakily grabbed his energy pistol. He was far from quiet, but Blackarachnia didn't seem to think much of it as her attention was on the screaming shock trooper's back. She would later though, after she came out of stasis lock from such a lucky shot to the head that it was a gift from Primus himself.

"Rattrap!" a welcoming, familiar voice called from above.

Rattrap didn't look up, but head two different sets of jets. "H-help-p h-er!" he yelled as he prayed to Primus to keep up his luck as he fired between Inferno's legs at the twisted mech known as Tarantulas.

Energy blasts and arrows rained down from above on the true Predacon. Between Optimus Primal, Airazor and Inferno, Rattrap watch the three drive off Tarantulas, who dragged Blackarachnia none to gently with him. That left the Maximals with a very large, very well armed and rather upset shook trooper.

"This is going...to be fun..." Rattrap muttered as he face planted and jerked in another spasm.

The inside of the critical repair chamber was the first thing Rattrap saw when his systems cleared of cyber-venom. The mech shook his head, checking his internal read outs and reports of the repairs. He also check over the report from the chamber it's self, hitting the somewhat cliché big red batten to his right.

Rattrap slid off the seat as the door started opening. He stretched out somewhat stiff, but now well oiled joints, "Eeeeeeaaah!" It wasn't a yawn, but the closest equivalent to such a thing that he could do to one. Great he was already kicking his old habits back into gear, that would raise a few more questions about him.

Oh well, Primus zap the spark.

"Hey Rattrap," A feline head peeked under the rising door, "Feel better?"

"Yeah, where's the pod?" Rattrap asked, reaching out to scratch Cheetor behind the ears as he came out into the medical bay.

"The Zeno-biology lab," Cheetor said, enjoying the scratch before leading the way on long, lanky legs. He stood with his back coming up almost to Rattrap's chest. He was, like Tigertron, comfortable in beast mode as he was in robot mode. "Your code and encryption is giving Rhinox and Big-bot no end of trouble."

Rattrap snicker in pleasure.

"Where did you learn to do encryptions like that?" Cheetor asked padding silently beside the Minibot, "I've never seen anything like it. And what's inside? The new mech-erm, I mean femmie is in there." He flicked his long, ringed tail at one of the other repair chambers, a larger than normal one, as they walked out of the bay. He hesitated and then tilted his head to look up at the older mech, "Is that really a femmie?"

"Scary as slag ain't she?" Rattrap grinned, confirming that Inferno was.

"She called me a 'worker'...?" Cheetor pushed his nose at Rattrap's hand for another scratch, he'd become slowly addicted to physical contact after getting his beast mode.

"Her beast mode is strong from what I've seen." _And felt_, Rattrap added to himself.

"_She's_ strong! Ooo... a little to the left..." Cheetor gave a purr, walking with his head sideways now, "So what's in the pod?"

"Who, no what kid," Rattrap corrected, "And she-"

"Ah 'gear! Another femmie!"

"-is human."

Cheetor halted, one paw was lifted mid-step, his black ears flattening to the sides in confusion before pricking up. "Human?" He had only seen humans in pictures in his history tracks before Cheetor became a navigator and piloted.

"No idea where she came from. Oy, here, transform for a click." Rattrap stepped aside as the younger mech did as told. The mech held out his hand, and when Cheetor grasped it, he sent a data pack that had the human language.

"Hmm." Cheetor mouthed a few words then sound out his own name before transforming back to all fours. "What's she like?"

"Didn't get to talk long before da spiders showed up." Rattrap shrugged and keyed the door open to one of the many labs on the _Axilon_.

"Rattrap! Undo these _please!_" Rhinox half asked, half demanded looking up from the control panel of the large stasis pod. At the same time there was a _thump_ from within the pod.

_Thump. Thump. Thump!_

"Whoever is inside has been there for several cycles, I think he wants to come out." Optimus Primal said from where he was standing at the foot of the pod.

"R.T. said it was a human!" Cheetor announced... with his new translation program so he was speaking English not Cybertronian.

Optimus and Rhinox's optics dimmed and flashed in blink of sorts. "Cheetor, when did you learn the human language?" The Maximal caption and leader asked, watching his best and currently only pilot and navigator leap up on a table and laying down with his long legs stretched out and paws crossed.

The over sized cheetah flicked his ringed tail at Rattrap, who was putting his hands on the pod.

"I just gave it ta him." Rattrap said, paused as he focused on his encryption code. There was a muffled _click_, "An' the hid-"

Rhinox lifted the lid, leaning away from the head of the pod to give its unexpected occupant some space. However, not only was the human more to the foot of the stasis pod, but was in mid-kick with both feet in another demand for freedom. So instead of hitting the lid a paned, Rhinox got two feet in the face.

The end result?

"GAH!"

"AHH!"

The massive Maximal and the (relatively) tiny human managed to scare the slag out of each other.

The human, Omicron, managed to get an impressive amount of air despite having been bracing herself on her back a moment ago. She scrambled back wards away from the 'unknown threat,' and ran into Optimus Primal's chest, yelped, half vaulted, half fell over her backpack and was right back into the pod. Fully expecting to see a further freak out the four Maximals tensed, Cheetor looked about to transform, Rhinox hesitated no sure of what to do, Rattrap was about to lean forward and restrain the woman so she wouldn't her herself.

Yet Omicron had frozen after falling back over. One eye partly closed in a wince, "...ow."

"Ya' okay kid?" Rattrap asked in English, easing closer.

"Holy shit that _hurt!_"

Rattrap chuckled, "Ya're alright."

"With a bloody concussion-" She stopped, staring at Optimus, "Oh..." She then said something that the translation programs couldn't convert. At least the ones Primeal and Rhinox had.

However the one Rattrap had, and this Cheetor, has many further learned notes of slag and such. So the smallest mech grind, crossing his arms over the edge of pod, "Sorry kiddo, we ain't compatible like dat."

Cheetor snorted his laughter, holding most of his own amusement in.

Omicron started, and then whipped off her red and black hat –in doing so drew attention to Autobot emblem on it- and proceeded to smack Rattrap over the head a few time. She hugged the hat to her chest when Rattrap took a swipe at it.

Cheetor was sitting up now, looking like he was hurting himself in his attempt to hold his laughter in. Cybertronian he maybe, but the spotted feline was still, more or less, an adolescent, and thus able to find humor in any number of things.

Optimus Primal made a sound like clearing his throat. He held out a hand to the human, "Are you injured?"

A pause.

"I admit I've been better." There were some visible scratches on the backs of her hands and the exposed forearms, with the sleeves punched up. Omicron accepted help from Rattrap's out of the pod.

Optimus saw the smear of red on the woman's neck and just managed not to touch her but his hand hovered near. She leaned away automatically from the large hand, Primal didn't miss that the human edged closer to Rattrap as she lifted a hand to her neck, pointing at the pod with her other hand.

"That thing has many sharp points and edges inside." Omicron informed him in a very calm voice, "And I do not appreciate it when that thing was dropped with me in it!"

"What?" Rattrap looked at Cheetor, the closest in his line of sight.

The cheetah lifted a paw and, well, pawed at the air with his permanently extended claws, "Don't look at me, I was on patrol!"

"That was my fault." Rhinox rumble as he knelt down.

The human back peddled away from the massive Maximal with a, "Eep!" and then was hiding behind Rattrap, back to Optimus who was now apparently less of a threat then Rhinox was.


	6. Explanations

**Beast Wars**

Chapter Six:

Explanations

"Omicron... That's a lovely name." Rhinox said as he moved back to the human and offered her the damp, clean cloth he held.

"Thanks," Omicron smiled a little oddly, probably still not fully used to his size, "Not bad for being named after a letter huh?" she added.

"What letter?" Rhinox asked, honestly interested, it wasn't often that a Maximal met a human, let alone one that was so 'young.' Oh he didn't think of Omicron as a sparkling, though the physical age was about right, though she seemed to have the same or around the same mentality as Cheetor. Who as it turned out was two hundred and twenty years old and Omicron was twenty two yeas old. They both got a kick out of it for some reason.

"'O.'" Omicron was sitting on an exam table, sharing it with Cheetor, and cleaned her hands, forearms and the various cuts and scratches she'd gotten from the pod as well as before. "It's Greek... er, Roman. No, wait I'm pretty sure it's Greek." She paused to give a little extra thought to it and nodded.

"Spots... What the slag are you doing?" Rattrap asked, demanded really as he and Optimus returned from where ever they had gone to talk alone almost ten minutes ago. Cheetor didn't stop his purring nor 'grooming' the human's exposed back to answer. In beast mode (still) his pink, rough tongue flicked out.

"In touch with his beast mode," Rhinox said and then added over internal communications. –_I think it's a good sign, they are getting along._-

"I'm helping." Cheetor said at last, his first words in ten minutes, glancing up.

"Yeah, but it tickles!" Omicron protested, wriggling a little to get away.

"Sorry but there's not enough room on here for the both of us in my 'bot mode."

"-ehehe- Really?"

"I use subspace transforming."

Optimus was about to softly scold the pilot, in that the human wouldn't know about subspace.

"Ah, okay-ee!" Omicron half yelped, half giggled as Cheetor licked the back of her neck. The woman ducked her head reflexively. "Okay! I'm as clean as I'll get without a shower!" Somehow the cat face looked doubtful and before Cheetor could get back to 'being in touch' with his beast mode again, Omicron took a gamble and reached out.

After a moment the over sized cheetah went cross-eye, the tip of his tongue sticking out in an expression of feline bliss. Cheetor tilted his head enough so that the human could get a better angle for the scratching behind the ears and then down the side of his jaw.

"Wow, it worked." Omicron muttered softly to her self, not aware that the other three Maximals heard her, "This is so incredibly cool." She knew it was a disguise, after all real big cats didn't talk nor do cheetahs get _that_ big (that she knew of), but really... how many people can say they got cuddles from a cheetah and could pet one without risk of being bitten when said person wasn't a trainer?

Rhinox chuckled softly to himself, having seen Cheetor get this kind of attention from their Captain in quiet moment. The mech turned his attention away from the human's awed fascination and to Optimus Primal and Rattrap, "Are you done?"

"Yes," The ship's Captain nodded, approaching closer to be able to touch the nearer leg of his human guest, pausing just a moment it took Rhinox to send him her name, "Omicron, may I speak to you?"

She looked up, seeming to understand and nodded, "Of course." Omicron gave a small smile, "I'm guessing you have no idea how I got here either?"

Primal inclined his head, pulling over one of the seats to use as even with the human up on the berth and him standing Optimus was still taller and _larger_. He sat beside the berth to put himself more at her level, and thus not be as intimidating while being a little under her head level to give an impression of security, "No, we don't. Could you tell us what happened, from your point of view?" Optimus held out his hands in an apologetic manor before the gesture shifted a little to be more imploring.

Omicron was watching him, stopping the cheetah pets to fold her own hands into her lap, "I don't... I have this... this_ gap_ that I can't explain," She tapped her head, "I remember a week ago, to me, of being at work, and a night out with my friend, then deckhanding on the charter boat my family store goes out on a lot. But it gets fuzzy in the wrong way after that."

"There's a right way?" Rattrap arched up an optic ridge as he leaned back to prop his elbows on one of Rhinox' legs now that the big mech was sitting as well.

The woman shrugged, "Well, sort of, like if you get drunk, memory isn't always good but you remember what happen...ish."

"Drunk?" Rhinox asked, tilting his head at the term that seemed to be out of place. With a different basis for his translation program he didn't understand the meaning behind what may be slang as far as he knew.

"Over-charged," Rattrap supplied, and then said the same thing in Cybertron to be extra sure his friend understood.

"Ah." The big mech nodded, filling the term 'drunk' in that context for future reference if heard again or if he needed to use it, "Go on soft spark," he added to Omicron, his deep tome reasuring.

"Yeah, well, I don't know what happened between dinner, movie and dancing at home and..." She paused, Omicron shifted to reach into one of the many pockets of her cargo pants to extract her cell phone, flipping it open.

Of course there was no signal what so ever, but the battery seemed full as Omicron checked the date. She frowned at it, "Crap."

"What's wrong?" Optimus asked leaning forward a bit, but relaying on Cheetor to get a better look at the small human device.

"The date," Omicron hesitated before turning her phone around and pointing to it, "I think I have a bit more lost time than I thought. Like a week or so instead of a few days before I showed up in those woods."

Primal didn't take the little human communications device, but glanced over the tiny human letters and numbers. The Captain hummed as he realized not only was this human was misplaced in space, but in time even more than they were as he saw the year of the date and compared it. Primus, no wonder the human wasn't over stressed at their alien presents in comparison to her. Optimus would bet that the woman may have even seen his Autobot ancestors not only in news but possibly by sight, if not exactly in person. The odds were against a personal meeting.

It also explained the Autobot emblem on her helm covering- her _hat_ was also a bit reassuring. Clearly the human supported them, Optimus felt the evidence wasn't just the simple show of emblem, but how she was cherishing the hat. Primal had noticed that even in the short time of knowing Omicron.

Right now the Captain reached over to gently wrap her free hand within his larger one, "It's alright," Optimus said reassuringly, "What happened after you found yourself on this world?" He asked to keep the human going.

Omicron took a deep breath, using her fingers to flip her cell closed and stuff it back away into a different pocket, "I was in a forest, but it wasn't like those in the area I'm native to. The northwest, a temperate rain forest. I fallowed a steam and came across a freakin' reaction of the first bot and con battle in Oregon."

"That would be us and the Preds." Rattrap snorted, growling lightly to himself, "Fragging spiders..." he trailed off as Optimus glanced over at him and Rhinox nudged the rat to be quiet.

The human blinked and tilted her head.

"Predacons," Cheetor spoke up, "The bad guys that were shooting at Rattrap and the others. 'Preds.'"

"Ah," Omicron nodded, though still had a confused look, she shrugged and continued, "After that I booked it- er, ran away from all the explosions and gun fire. And that's when I ran into Inferno."

"Big femmie." Cheetor muttered and then ducked his head down as he realized he'd interrupted.

"Yeah, really big," The human woman agreed whole heartedly, "I kinda... I think I might have taken advantage." Omicron looked down, and then up again as Primal gave her hand another light squeeze.

"From what I understand," Optimus started, "With Tarantulas trying to reprogram Inferno, I believe you are forgiven." He inclined his head, "You had help surviving, and in turn kept our head of security away from the Predacon ranks. Omicron I don't think you understand that in protecting you, you gave Inferno something stable and a way to grasp what she was before her programming was tampered with."

"I did?" Omicron blinked, looking to the side as the over sized cheetah rubbed against her left arm.

Rhinox nodded, "Inferno will be needing therapy I but she is better off than loosing all who she was."

"Huh." The human looked back down and then up again, "Anyways, we basically ran away from the shooting and yelling to be on the safe side."

"Dat's when I saw ya' kitten." Rattrap said, pushing off the brown mech he was leaning on to stand up straight.

Omicron nodded in acknowledgment of that, "Well, we camped out. Inferno seemed to get into a digging fit and I kinda took a nap before handsome in silver there showed up. We kinda all scared the slag out of each other, and Inferno more so, that why she attacked you Rattrap." Omicron explained more to Rattrap than the others.

Hearing the apology the shortest mech sighed and stepped over, "It's okay kitten, not your fault really..." He said, first scratching Cheetor behind the ears before reaching out. Rattrap swiped his hand over the human's head from behind to the front and in turn knocking the red Autobot hat nearly off. Rattrap grinned at the instant reaction, while Omicron freed her right hand at least to hurriedly clamp both on the hat to protect it.

"After dat' all happened and nearly getting' fragging crushed," Rattrap could help adding, "The Preds showed up again."

"And you threw me into that pod... thingy!" Omicron accused from glaring up at him from under the bill of her hat.

"It was the only safe place," Rattrap defended.

"He's right," Rhinox hummed, "Given the situation, you wouldn't want to have be found by either Tarantulas or Blackacracnia."

"The 'spiders?'" Omicron half asked half guessed, looking a little pale as she seemed to be imagining giant spiders. Rattrap gave her a synthetic look, from his time with humans he knew a lot of them had good reason being afraid of the things, if not being allergic to the venom then just as vulnerable 'normally'.

"Yeah," Cheetor glanced over at Optimus before speaking, "Both have arachnid beast modes." He twitched and then switched his tail.

"Transformers with the form of spiders..." The human shivered as her arachnophobia kicked up at the thought of just how _big_ the mentioned mech and femmie would be in beast mode. Not a pleasant thought for Omicron at all considering the size of mechs around her right now.

"Sooo... is Inferno gonna be alright?" the human asked to change the subject, honestly worried about the Cybertronian equivalent of an Amazon. Omicron didn't make a move to leave her spot on the berth with Cheetor to stay well out of the way of all those metal feet as Rhinox got up and Optimus leaned back.

Not that Rhinox blamed the girl, he had a feeling it was some kind of mental security thing as well with her back and sides to the corner of the room. And the reassuring warmth of spotted fur.

"Tarantulas did a number on her programming," Rhinox rumbled going to a computer set in the wall and looking at the data he called up from the medical lab. He spoke on two levels, to Optimus viva a privet communication line had asked the same question as the human about Inferno, "He should never have tampered with it...this is a patch of both Maximal and Predacon..."

There was a long pause and then:

"...So is she going to be alright?" Omicron asked against hesitantly.

-_...is she going to be alright?_- Primal asked as well, almost at the same time but over the communications line, knowing that Rhinox would be completely honest with him where the big mech may not tell the human woman everything.

The big Maximal winced inwardly at worried tone of the girl, pausing long enough to send a quick assurance and comment not to distract him to Optimus before turning around to smile at Omicron, "Yes, I'm pretty sure I can fix most of all of it. But there is the rampant beast mode... I have a question."

"Yeah?" Omicron pulled up her knees, wrapping her arms around them and tore her gaze from the Cheetor to look back at the big Maximal.

Rhinox came over, frowning a little, "According to my scans, Inferno should have berserk after coming out of her pod... _how_ are you still alive little one?"

Omicron stared up at him for a few long moments, "Ant logic." She finally said grinned. "And lots of adrenalin and not giving Inferno a whole lot of time to think to hard at very first... than... I don't know it's like she imprinted... is is possible for transformers to imprint?"

"Sparklings can yes, in a way." Optimus nodded as he rumbled softly to himself as he thought.

"I think it would be best for Omicron to be present when Inferno starts to come around." Rhinox said suddenly, "If she has 'imprinted,' than it would be wise for her to stay near you while going through the programming therapy..." He paused.

Omicron propped her chin on her arms, with a resigned look on her organic features, "I'm going to be here for a while I take it."


	7. A talk

**Book 1: Beast Wars**

Chapter Seven: 

A talk

"Okay," Tallen, or rather Omicron as she had let the Maximals know her as. She wasn't sure why she didn't give her real name, but just went with her gut on the subject. "You have your wallet-calendar book thing, cell phone, two dollars and seventy... five cents in quarters, three pads, five tampons, De-fog..." She listed aloud, and counted to list the items the woman had pulled out of all her pockets and set them all out on the berth in front of her. "Dive knife, reading glasses, keys… oh that's helpful with no bloody car- I miss my Satern..." the woman continued on to herself.

Omicron was in one of the 'smaller' rooms, quarters, on the _Axilon_ to take stalk of all that she had. The room itself was about twice the size of Omicron's in her apartment, at least… and this is what Primal had called small?

_Really_?

Shaking her head, Omicron returned her attention to that which was spread out in neat rows on the berth before her. The woman ran her hands over her person, re-checking all her pockets and coming up with a missed sewing needle kit that joined the rest of her things. "Okay, all that's impressive." She said poking her mask that had been with the de-fog in her left lower pocket.

Checking the time, Omicron found she had enough to start on her backpack. Two one side of the things already out, the woman pulled out her laptop first being very careful as she set it, the power cored and her external hard drive together. A few stray jump-drives would join that pile as well.

As Omicron pulled apart a bundle of fabric to see what those cloths were, she glanced back at her laptop, worried about the transformer shows on it, as well as in the external hardrive. What should she do with them? Omicron didn't want to delete them but... how to explain to these mechs her dimension?

She shivered a little at the thought of what could happen not only to herself but to the Beast Wars. What if Dinobot re-joined Megatron or something like that too early?

Omicron forced her attention back onto the pair of shorts, under-things and another shirt in her hands before folding them back up and set them down on the berth with the rest of her stuff. Diving back into the backpack she pulled out everything and even shook it upside down.

"I was going somewhere." Omicron muttered looking over her things, she had always kept a lot of stuff in her backpack, but not normally _this_ much. It was stuffed full like she did when going on an airplane. Or when she was going on a trip for more than a week did Omicron cram this amount into the pack.

She fingered the two figures of Bumblebee and Barricade from the live action Transformers movie. The two things hung off the loops on the pack's zippers. They didn't transform or anything, but apparently looked different enough from the real thing that no one asked about them.

Omicron crossed her arms on the edge of the berth that was as high as her stomach. She stared and then dropped her head into her arms, "What am going to do?"

There was a knocking on the open door behind and to the right of the human, and after jumping and looking back she saw a mech she hadn't yet... Only Omicron had, but not _as_ a mech.

"You okay?" Cheetor's voice asked as the mostly golden mech stayed in the doorway, tilting his head. Though shorter than Optimus Primal, the young mech was also taller than both Omicron and Rattrap.

"I..." The human looked back at the berth, hesitated before letting her shoulders drop under the weight of uncertainty, "I don't know... no, I'm not alright. I'm somewhere I know for damn sure I wasn't but at the same time I can remember squat about how I got here, or what happened to me in the days black out of my memory."

"I'm sorry Omicron," The young mech said as he came in, looking around first at the empty room, out the window view then couldn't help his interest at all the things on the berth.

"You can call me Omie if you want," Omicron smiled up at the golden mech, Cheetor flashed a full one gri, n, some feline like fangs included, in return. "Still same El-Spotty?"

"Just bigger, but still me," Cheetor chuckled as he stepped up beside the human, reach out daringly to touch her hat. "What's all this?"

"Everything I pulled off my person and in my bag," Adjusting her hat back the way she like it, Omicron shifted. Using one foot to rub on the ankle of her other leg, where one of her tattoos were. That one in particular she really didn't want to explain just yet, as it was a Decepticon emblem and a big one at four inches.

"That's a lot of stuff for someone that doesn't have sub-space," Cheetor said, picking up the silicon mask and looking it over. Belatedly he looked back at the human as he realized that maybe he should have asked first. "Sorry-"

"Its okay Cheetor," smiling, Omicron took back the mask and put it on. Since it fit she didn't need to use the strap to hold it in place, just a small sniff, "Its mah dive mask." She said, tone a little odd as she had block off air passage to her nose to keep the mask in place. Popping it off she gently tossed it back by the defog.

Audio finnals twitching like cat ears pricking up, Cheetor tilted his head, "What's that for, and how'd you do that?"

"Its my mask, I use for snorkeling and diving," Omicron looked up at confused yellow optics, "Scuba diving." The optics dimed and flashed in a blink. She held up on arm flat for demistation, curving the fingers of her other hands and mimicked diving down, "Its what we humans do when we want to go under water for a much longer period of time then just holding one's breath. We carry a scuba tank, a personal air source with us to do so."

"Oh, I think I get it,' Cheetor glanced back at the mask, "And you use that to see right? Human optics- er, eyes are adjusted to seeing in air not water… that that makes sense yeah, it traps a bit of air in front of your op- eyes so you see through the glass?"

"Exactly!" Omicron grinned, and impressed a little as the young maximal proved that he wasn't as 'young and dumb' as most thought he was. Hell he was a primary point for a space ship, he couldn't be 'dumb' for that! "Not bad for a new-bee to meeting a human for the first time." She lightly thumped her fist to the mech's hip, and got a playful soft nudge back.

"I cheated a bit," Cheetor admitted, "just looking over everything we had on humans... really odd that we don't have a lot other some basic stuff. Rattrap seems to know a lot, think he worked with some."

"In your time?" Omicron asked as she pulled herself up on the berth to sit on the edge as well as facing the mech. Semi aware she had put herself between her laptop and the Maximal to protect it, but didn't mind him poking at a few of the other things.

"How…?" Cheetor looked up, surprised.

"Well, you're not Autobots," She pointed at the Maximal emblem that Cheetor proudly bore. "And I heard one of you mentioned them as an 'ancestor.' So, not too hard to put together."

The feline mech considered, then shrugged, excepting that, "True enough... what about you? Did you meet a mech before?" He asked, setting down the pair of socks he'd been looking at, and resisted leaning closer so not to loom. It was an odd thought that _he_ of all mechs could be considering looming. "Or an Autobot?" Cheetor pointed at the red hat with that emblem.

"Not exactly... not personally," Omicron admitted, thinking as she touched the bill of her hat, then she grinned, "Well, I think I passed one on I-5, the interstate freeway where I'm from." She screeched something in the air, a rough outline of Washington and Oregon State, "See, I live up at the top of Washington, and Oregon is just below us. The I-5 cuts right by us and into the lower state. There's roomers of the Autobots using it, and now and there's this really odd car or truck that you see. When you first see it, if there's no one else around and either you're gaining on it or it's gaining on you, it doesn't seem to have anyone in it."

Cheetor leaned against the berth near the human, listening intently, smiling as he was caught up in the human's projected energy. "Then what?"

"That's the odd thing, you do a double take, or if you pass each other, there suddenly IS someone driving, but that person doesn't look quite right," Omicron sat up, "Like, they're really sick- the kind you know if someone _is_ that color then they wouldn't be able to drive." She shrugged, "Its kind of an instant of knowing who's really damn sick like that. Or, that person that's driving looks more like a washed out sketch, little grainy."

"Holograms," Cheetor breathed, smiling not just as he understood but at the wistful dream of having personal holograms, "That must be a thrill."

"It the car fits the known general descriptions of the bots yeah, I heard of someone that might have had a Decepticon following him around on the boarder of the states." Omicron shivered, then beamed as she added, "I think I saw one Autobot for sure though."

"Any idea who it might be?" Cheetor asked, grinning again.

"Well," Omicron started, not answering the mech directly, but instead, "It was down in California, I was going to a convention and it was really late when my friends and I left. But there was big, huge ass truck," She waved her arms out, "I mean a big-big rig that was bigger than that old module should have been."

The mech grew still, his optics widening as he referenced the description so far. His tail twitched, one of the few subtle differences between this reality and the show 'Beast Wars.' That reality would prove that Cheetor wasn't the only one to have a tail twitching behind him. "What color was it?"

"Red, bright red and also these odd patches of warn spots. And there was this on the grill," Omicron took off her hat and pointed at the emblem with a flourish. She was telling the maximal the truth, just leaving out that she went to Botcon, and that the bits of her story were out of order, but it was the truth, "It, or he didn't move or say anything but I think I know who it was."

"Optimus Prime..." Cheetor breathed in awe, touching the black Autobot emblem on the hat, refocusing his optics on the human, "You saw _the_ Prime? What did you _do_?"

Omicron perused her lips and then bit the lower one, but her eyes where bright in their own right, "I waved, yelled thank you and then ran away squeaking in what might have been one of my most ungraceful moments of my whole life."

The gold mech leaned back and laughed, it wasn't cruel but it still felt good to laugh, "I don't' think I'd even make it running away. This cat might just trip and plant his helm in the ground if I met the Prime."

"Yeah..." Omicron took a deep breath, "He and the Autobots have done so much for my world. Granted the war they brought isn't exactly fun, nor with the volcano erupted that woke them up in the first place," She looked back to the mech, "I live under and within a volcano's range, so, yeah, that's a wee bit scary."

"Why do you live there then?" Cheetor tilted his head, shifting around to kneel down and folded his arms on the berth. He was almost optic to eye now with the human, gold looking into hazel, "If it's so dangerous."

"It's dangerous almost no matter where you live big kitty," Omicron pointed out with her own head-tilt, "In a way. And there's lots of volcano's in the ring of fire, but Mt. Baker, that's the volcano I live by, its doormat. Mostly, its grumbled now and then."

"Grumbled?"

"Geological speaking that is."

Cheetor poked at the human's cellphone, "You study geology?" he asked opening the flip phone and stared at the not just the text but little picture of a bridge over a waterway and island. "What's this?"

"That's Deception Pass near where I live." Omicron said without looking, knowing her favorite background on her phone, "And not exactly, I took a few courses and liked it in homeschool, but I like biology, marine biology more and writing more. I'm… or was…or are… whatever the term is now. But I want to be in the diving industry."

"Gear, sounds like you have a plan," Cheetor smiled, it faltered as the human sighed and held up a hands, holding it flat and tilting it from side to side like he had seen Rattrap do several times. Did she pick that up from him? No...

Wait, Rattrap must have picked that up from humans whenever he worked with them.

"The plan has sort of derailed." Omicron pulled her knees up, then jerked in surprise as large gold and silver arms, with a patches of fur, wrapped around her and pulled the woman off the berth and into the Maximal's lap. "Wha…"

"Know the feeling," Cheetor said with deep feeling, purring as he ran one hand over and through blond hair. "My plan has sort of derailed too... I wanted to be the pilot of at least fifteen different ships by the time I was five hundred and fifty five." He smiled a bit.

"…how high are you to that goal?" Omicron looked up, "If you don't mind me asking."

Cheetor shook his head, not minding, "Including the _Axilon_ this is the eighth ship I've piloted professionally."

"And you said you were two-twenty?" The human tilted her head, "I'd say you're not doing too bad."

"Yeah, but with the crash, little derailed." The mech shrugged, paused as he cocked his head with an internal comm. a text message so to say, "Looks like their ready to bring Inferno out of stasis. Let's go down there."

"Okay, could you let go so I can stuff all this back into my bag?" Omicron asked, twisting in the feline bot's arms. And when he let her up she did as she said, stuffing everything she could into her bag before looked up as Cheetor shook himself. With her things packed away and a bundle of her cloths beside it. Out of pure habit her keys and cell were back in her pockets. Stepping over, the woman wrapped her arms around Cheetor's middle and hugged him. "Here's to getting back on the right rails?"

Cheetor grinned as he stooped to hug his new friend back, "I'd drink high grade to that! Come on, I'll walk you down to medical."

"It's a date." Omicron agreed, trusting that her stuff would be safe from prying as the door closed, and the mech set it so that she could set her own opening code.

As the two walked down the hall, neither noticed the form coming out of the shadows farther down. It cocked its crested head one way, then the other and one claw clicked against the metal decking softly. With a ruffle of earth tone feathers the creature fallowed the two at well back pace, pausing once only to sniff at the only closed door in the hall.


End file.
